The present invention relates to cognitive and/or beacon-based communication techniques to provide new and/or improved services to users based on location information. More specifically, the presently described inventive concepts include several applications of precise, accurate location services in a cognitive manner that adapts to the specific needs of individual users in the context of the location and activity in which the user is engaged.
Exemplary activities include: providing multilingual navigational guidance and point-specific communication, e.g. within a transit facility; providing cognitive navigational guidance through a tourist attraction, e.g. to tailor a user's experience based on user preferences and conditions at the attraction; and facilitating communication with a user's vehicle, e.g. to summon a vehicle to a precise location at a precise time using beacon technology.
For instance, in the context of assisting travelers in a transit facility, as is well known by any experienced traveler, transit hubs such as airports, bus stations, train stations, metro/subway stations, harbors, ferries, docks, etc. are often chaotic, cacophonous environments with much activity and noise occurring in a hurried environment. As a result it becomes quite easy for an individual to become lost, or be unable to navigate to a desired destination such as a certain gate, terminal, platform, dock, etc. Announcements made over a public system may be inaudible, or in a language not understood by a given traveler. All these challenges lead to a difficult situation when attempting to navigate through a transit hub or equivalent space. These challenges are exacerbated for the case of inexperienced, challenged, or incapacitated individuals including children, individuals suffering from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, etc., hearing-impaired and/or visually-impaired individuals, or any other class that may experience difficulty receiving or following instructions. Even for those without additional challenges, navigating a transit hub can be a difficult experience.
Regarding navigating a tourist attraction, most travelers, especially those who travel by themselves and not in organized groups, are unable to afford human guides who can help enhance their experience through an interactive tour. Though group-guided tours are more affordable, the experience the guide provides depends on the group preferences rather than an individual's preference. The quality of experience is also completely dependent on the experience, capabilities, and enthusiasm of the guide. Accordingly, most travelers are faced with a dilemma of choosing between attempting to navigate tourist attractions on their own, without expert guidance, or to join a group experience, but sacrifice the individual nature of the experience and possibly not be able to experience certain exhibits about which the individual tourist is most interested.
In the context of vehicular communication, quite often, a scenario occurs where someone is leaving the office space, mall, museum, theme park etc. sometimes with loads of bags and items. In such a case, going to the user's vehicle is a troubling experience for the user. Current technology exists where the user can click on a button and the car can reach close to the user detecting the user's location when the user exists the building. However, the exact coordinates detection is always a problem due to inaccuracy in fetching the exact GPS coordinates of the user. Also, if the user exits from the backdoor or a different location of the building, which is not essentially the main exit (where the user's vehicle is mostly capable of coming around), then, this might lead to incorrect and inaccurate location being fetched by the car while tracking the user. Even an error of as small as 10 meters or less can cause a vehicle to be located, e.g. on the opposite side of the street as the user. While an error of 10 meters may seem a minor distance, if the street is a busy one, or separated by impassable obstacles such as a fence, drainage ditch, subway tunnel, bridge, etc. then even this low amount of error can be a critical failure in the context of the use-case in question.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide improved indoor location services that are context-aware and configured to provide application-specific services without suffering from the shortcomings of the prior art.